대학생들의 영어모음 발음과 지각

College students' production and perception of English vowels

Correct production and perception of English vowels are important in the communication with international speakers. Many college students, even English majors, seem to lack an appropriate level of speaking and listening ability to discriminate English vowels. The purpose of this study is to examine 51 college students on their training background and ability to produce and perceive English vowels. They participated in the perception test and word recording. The recorded sounds were acoustically and auditorily observed to determine whether they could discriminate some pairs of English vowels or not. Results showed that almost half of the students could not produce and perceive the vowels correctly which matched the results of their answers to the questionnaire. The author concludes that current education of English vowels needs improvement. Sufficient time and practice on the vowel pronunciation are desirable to end the vicious cycle that leads to poor acquisition of students of secondary education by unprepared English teachers.